Hi everyone,
I designed some lattice structures in GH and analyzed them via Karamba. I want to compare their structural strength, but I am not sure which results are suitable for me. Is the displacement value enough to compare the strength of structures? What else do I need to get a better comparison? By the way, I used steel and concrete materials for the Karamba analysis. Can you help me, please? I have no time
Thanks in advance,
I think you should ask a structural engineer…
I asked already, but he didn’t know Karamba. I think there is somebody at the forum who can help me.
The fact that he doesn’t know Karamba is understandable…
…But he should be able to tell you which properties to look for when comparing structural strength… these properties are not dependent on the software package…
Yes, you are definitely right. I don’t have no time to find and contact an engineer now 
Structural engineering is a lot more involved than just comparing some values between different structures. You would have to pay attention to deformations, stresses, strength of materials, safety coefficients, buckling phenomena, connections, detailing.
I have a feeling you are asking too much with too little understanding considering you are in a rush.
My main intention to calculate the strength-to-weight ratio. I saw some research papers about the strength-to-weight ratio of beam structures. I wonder how they got the strength ratio with a simulation. A paper explains this ratio by dividing von Mises stress by mass. However, since the Von Mises stress value is not given for beam elements in Karamba, I cannot follow a similar method. Frankly, I don’t know what other value I can use instead.
Hi, in Karamba3D you can extract the beam forces, the utilisation values (based on EC3) and the deformations of beams. Please refer to our manual for more information: 3.7.10: Beam Forces | English 英文 | Karamba3D 2.2.0
Thank you, Matthew. I wonder which parameters I must consider to understand the strength of whole structures. I think displacement values alone are not enough to say that one structure is stronger than another. What other values do I need to look at to say that one structure is more durable/strength than another?
Then maybe the best thing for you to look at is utilisation, but there are many things to consider when you want to look at the durability of your design.
As far as I know, utilization gives the maximum loads the structure can withstand as a percentage value. How can I obtain these maximum stress values numerically?
When I want to compare structures according to their strength-to-weight ratio, which value do you recommend I take?
